>> this is an acknowledgement that they have lost the debt ceiling essentially as a leveraged tool they have been using it as as the past couple of years. this was the main lever to pressure president obama to get spending cuts. when we saw congress' approval ratings plummet was at the time republicans were successful in doing this back in 2011 and they had a hard time recovering since then. i think this is an acknowledgement essentially they will no longer be able to use this. maybe they can use the sequestered and spending bills it also gives the republican party some time to recuperate from the election, and from the bloody fiscal cliff battle where they will acknowledge they came out the losers on that deal, and to try and just picked off some small fights on spending cuts such that they can rebuild the credibility and brand with the american people. i might mention they just came out of a retreat where they were presented with some unsettling members from their pollster that showed 64 percent of the american public disapproves of republicans in congress. i think they realize they h